Scientists found the new species, which on average is just 7.7
millimeters long, in the southwestern Pacific island nation of Papua New
Guinea.
The frog, scientifically named Paedophryne amauensis, spends its life
in moist leaf litter on the floors of tropical wet-forests. Males call
out with a continuous series of high-pitched notes at dawn and dusk,
resembling the sound of crickets, says Christopher Austin, associate professor at Louisiana State University who led the team that discovered the frog.
"We think the really small body size is an evolutionary adaptation to
occupy this really moist, leaf litter niche in New Guinea," Austin
said. Typically, small frogs dry out quickly, but this tiniest species
has a habitat that stays moist for most of the year.
Describing their findings in the online research journal PLoS ONE,
researchers say the animals have simplified skeletons and are born
directly as frogs, as opposed to first going through a tadpole stage.
Researchers believe these creatures eat even smaller animals, such as
mites, Austin said.
The discovery "is of considerable interest to biologists because
little is understood about the functional constraints that come with
extreme body size, whether large or small," the report in the journal
states.
Previously the smallest vertebrate was believed to have been a fish
known as Paedocypris progenetica, which matures at 7.9 millimeters.
There has been speculation that aquatic habitats are home to the world's
smallest and largest vertebrates, but this frog contradicts that
theory, Austin says.
Although the smallest frogs are just being reported on now, they are locally abundant, Austin said.
The discovery reveals that tiny frogs "are not merely curiosities,
but represent a previously unrecognized ecological guild. Such
discoveries are increasingly critical in this time of global amphibian
declines and extinctions," the report says.
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